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The Role of the UN Security Council in the Fight Against Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea

Abstract The UN Security Council continues to play a critical role in ensuring the maintenance of international peace and security. Towards this end, the Council has over the years delineated maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea as a threat to international peace and security. Through Resolutions 2018...

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Progressive and Regressive Securitisation: Covid, Russian Aggression and the Ethics of Security

Abstract This paper contributes to the debate about the normative assessment of securitisation in light of Covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It develops the distinction of progressive and regressive securitisation. In doing so, it emphasises the processual, contextual and ambiguous nature...

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Constructing Nazis on Political Demand: Agenda-Setting and Framing in Russian State-Controlled TV Coverage of the Euromaidan, Annexation of Crimea and the War in Donbas

Abstract The central role of mass communication in the construction of crises, threats and enemies was acknowledged decades ago. In those cases when media reporting about crises, threats and enemies is studied, it is predominately done based on the media content from Western liberal democracies. The...

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Small Powers, Geopolitical Crisis and Hypersecuritisation: Latvia and the Effects of Russia’s Second War in Ukraine

Abstract This article presents a case where securitisation of one state in another increased dramatically and exponentially. The scale and intensity of securitisation were unprecedented, as were the range of securitisation actors, and the tone of language of speech acts and nonverbal securitisation...

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Introduction: Political Logics and Academic Rationalities of Securitisation and International Crises

  • Andrey Makarychev,University of Tartu, Estonia
  • Thomas Diez,University of Tübingen, Germany
Abstract This introductory note discusses how the concept of securitisation might be used as a tool for understanding the different logics driving and standing behind foreign policies of major international stakeholders in situations of crises, emergencies and exceptions. The editors look at how securitisation...

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Agents of Social Change: Cultural Work, Institutions, and the (De)securitisation of Minorities

  • Alina Jašina-Schäfer,Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz & Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (BKGE), Germany
Abstract This paper combines anthropological and other critical security studies with research on cultural work to better understand the impact cultural institutions may have on the (de)securitisation of minority groups. Today minority issues represent a recurrent theme in various national and European...

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Conflictual Rebordering: The Russia Policies of Finland and Estonia

  • Andrey Makarychev,University of Tartu, Estonia
  • Tatiana Romashko,University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Abstract This article seeks to analyse the process of conflictual rebordering in the EU's relations with Russia. The authors single out three major crises that triggered and shaped the process of toughening the border regime and the related transformations of political meaning of the EU-Russia border:...

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Ukraine at War: Resilience and Normative Agency

Abstract Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has transformed all aspects of life in the country, including societal attitudes, national politics and Ukraine’s agency on the international arena. The article seeks to discuss and conceptualise how practices of resilience create discursive...

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Polarity in the Context of U.S.-China Competition: Reassessing Analytical Criteria

Abstract How can polarity be used as a pertinent conceptual asset to inform the description of the distribution of military capabilities amongst the most powerful states in the international system today, especially in consideration of U.S.-China competition? Using the military power approach to...

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Two Dimensions of Existence of the ‘Slum’ in the Global City: A Comparative Case Study of Informal Settlements in Nairobi and Mumbai

Abstract The cities of the Global South have been predominantly approached as dual cities being embedded within the formal/informal dichotomy. This article provides an analysis of the power dynamics of formal and informal, using an example of public space in two informal settlements: Kibera in Nairobi,...

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Energy Security in Security Studies: A Systematic Review of Twenty Years of Literature

Abstract Energy security has clear relationships with national security – historically, semantically, and practically. This exploratory study offers a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 43 academic articles focused on energy issues, published in five international security studies...

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Iran’s Nuclear Policy: A Cognitive Study on Defiance and Compliance

Abstract This paper argues that the divides in Iran’s nuclear behaviour between the three periods of 2005-2012, 2012-2016 and 2016-2021 are reflections of the varying modes of Iran’s cognising the value of the nuclear program versus its costs. The predominant belief in the first period that Iran is...

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Disposal, Destruction and Disarmament: Comparative Analysis of US Chemical Weapon and Weapons Plutonium Stockpile Reductions

Abstract The elimination of stockpiled weaponry constitutes a key step in arms control and disarmament processes, lending permanence and irreversibility to arms reductions. Yet it has proven challenging in practice. The destruction of advanced weapon components, like lethal chemical agents and the fissile...

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